Bourbon Frosted Spice Cookies

I never tire of a perfectly spiced, molasses cookie. While most people wait until fall or winter to crave the warming spices of cinnamon, ginger and clove, I love them year round. These cookies are crisp around the edges and decadently chewy through the middle. But at first glance of this recipe printed years ago in the New York Times, I cringed at the idea of frosting a molasses spice cookie. They are already sweet and the idea of more sweetness seemed overly coy. But in this cookie it works and is addictively wonderful.

I’ve tinkered with the recipe a bit (my humble apologies to the original author), but off the bat they had it right with the amount of salt and butter. I’ve lowered the baking soda which was too much, you could taste it in the final cookie. But I kept the amount of ground clove the same, you may be tempted to lower the amount, but don’t, the strength of the clove makes the cookies well spiced and unique. Finally I altered the frosting, browning the butter first, adding cream cheese for mouth feel and texture and of course, the bourbon.

I also tinkered with an orange variation which was lovely and hit all the tics for a great Holiday cookie, the variation is at the end of the recipe. Overall it’s a straight forward creaming technique that comes together quickly. They are a classic drop cookie, no need to roll into round balls if you have a disher scoop. I used the purple one which yields 3/4 ounce portions and resulted in 28 perfectly round cookies.

The frosting goes on the cooled cookie a little warm so it spreads lusciously, but if you cool it all the way it will have a rigid frosted look too, both are lovely. To my lasting delight, the cookies were even better the second day after resting all night in a cookie tin. They turned soft throughout and imbibed the oaky floral notes of the bourbon in the frosting. I had to give most of them away to stop from eating them.

Browned Butter Bourbon frosting with vanilla bean

Bourbon Frosted Spice Cookies

Yield: 24-28 cookies

Time: active 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 stick/12 Tablespoons/170 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup/210 grams granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (not kosher)

1/4 cup/88 grams molasses (not blackstrap)

1 egg, room temperature

2 cups/272 grams all purpose, unbleached flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

For the frosting:

1/2 stick/4 Tablespoons/56 grams unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon good quality bourbon

1 ounce/2 Tablespoons/28 grams cream cheese, room temperature

3 1/2 cups/367 grams confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or 1/4 vanilla bean

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Milk to thin (or more Bourbon, I won’t tell)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Line 3-4 sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking mats.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat on medium speed for a few minutes until light in color and fluffy, scraping down the bowl with a spatula at least once to ensure even mixing. Add the molasses and mix on low speed at first to incorporate, then up the speed to medium for about 20 seconds.

Add the egg, scraping down the bowl again. Mix on low speed until the egg completely disappears. Scrape down the sides and mix again for a few seconds.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients in two additions. Mix on low speed, scraping down the bowl in-between additions and turning over any dry bits at the bottom of the bowl. Mix on low or by hand gently only until the last wisps of flour disappear. Scrape the paddle clean and turn the dough over with the spatula to make sure there are no butter or flour spots hiding in the bottom. Be careful not to over mix the dough here or you will get tough cookies.

Use a disher scoop or a Tablespoon to scoop even balls of cookie dough onto the parchment lined sheet pans. Do not flatten the dough or the cookies will spread too much as they bake.

Bake only two sheets at a time in the center and upper levels of the oven (the lowest level will over bake or burn due to the molasses). Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating 3/4 of the way through to ensure even baking. The cookies are done when they are risen and puffy in the center. They might appear under baked but they will continue to set up as they rest on the hot sheet pan. Over baked, the cookies will be firm almost gingersnap like instead of soft and chewy.

Bake the remaining cookies. Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan to avoid squishing them by transferring to a cooling rack.

While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting. Melt the butter in a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat. To brown the butter, cook the butter slowly, swirling it carefully in the pan, until you see the solids at the bottom of the pan begin to turn golden. Watch carefully to take the milk solids from golden to perfectly toasty brown but not further. Remove the pan from the heat as soon as the butter is brown.

Now deglaze the pan with the bourbon, this will take the butter solids off the bottom and also evaporate some of the alcohol (don’t worry, if you want more booze in it you can add more in later). Add the Bourbon and whisk well, it will sizzle and steam so be careful. Once the butter has cooled a bit add the cream cheese and whisk well until smooth. Now add the confectioner’s sugar, whisking in a cup at a time. When it gets too stiff add only a teaspoon of milk (or more bourbon) at a time to achieve a smooth frosting. Whisk in the vanilla extract or scraped vanilla bean caviar and also the sea salt.

To frost the cookies, mound about a spoonful of frosting in the center of a cookie and use a small offset spatula to smooth the frosting outward in circle. Let the frosting set.

Store the cookies in a tin at room temperature up to 5 days. Or freeze well wrapped up to one month.

Orange Spice Cookie Variation:

When making the cookie dough add the zest of one orange to the dough along with the molasses. For the frosting, juice the orange and omit the bourbon and milk. Let the browned butter cool most of the way, then add 2 Tablespoons of the orange juice and the remaining ingredients. Thin the frosting with more orange juice if needed.

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